“I am a chief compliance officer. I fantasize about resigning”

I am writing in this in response to the previous article on this site reflecting on the nightmare of compliance careers. I have now done this job for 18 years and am a chief compliance officer. 

If you are a junior compliance professional reading this, I would like to clarify that this role does not get any easier. The big title does not make the grind more worthwhile. The frustrations described by younger compliance officers don’t fade with time; they get heavier. 

Being a senior compliance officer is often a nightmare. The workload is endless, the responsibilities are crushing, and the personal liability is real.

As a chief compliance officer, you are accountable for everything, but the upside is capped. Tons of risk, tons of responsibility, and still limited recognition or reward.

There are some hard truths. Compliance doesn’t scale. The skills that make a good compliance officer aren’t very transferable. You won’t get carry, you won’t share in performance upside, and you won’t have the leverage to build wealth the way your front-office colleagues do. At the same time, your experience doesn’t open many doors elsewhere in finance. 

Compliance is a trap. High risk. Low reward. Limited exit.

Then there’s compliance culture. It’s praised in every town hall and annual report, but let’s be honest: lip service is cheap. Everyone says we take compliance seriously; but when budgets tighten, reality shows up. That’s when you see where compliance truly ranks.

I’ve even given up asking candidates why they want to work in compliance. It’s a laughable question. We all know the truth: most of us do it to pay the bills. Yes, there’s a sense of purpose in keeping firms safe, but it’s intangible, and it doesn’t show up in your bonus.

The reality is simple: compliance is not a revenue generator. That means the rewards will always be limited, and many of us are not happy in our jobs, even if we don’t always admit it out loud.

So what do you do? In my case, I’ve turned my focus toward investing my own money, building something outside of compliance that might one day give me freedom. Because as much as I’ve given to this profession, my long-term goal is simple: to hand in my letter, walk away, and finally be free.

Dylan Trent is a pseudonym

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